The present invention relates to Optical Internetworking, and more particularly to a multi-rate transceiver with Rate Adaptation.
Synchronous Optical Networking (SONET) is a standard way to multiplex high-speed traffic from multiple vendors'multiplexers onto fiber optic cabling. SONET equipment and software enable network providers to carry traffic from many types of customer equipment in a uniform way on backbone fiber optic cabling.
SONET is slightly different in the long haul space compared to the metro space. SONET for the metro space provides additional functionality for other protocols, such as Gigabit Ethernet, ESCON, FIBERCON, Fiber Channel 2X, and HDTV, to name a few.
Service providers provide services to various customers by provisioning a line card for the customer. Line cards handle one of a several standard rates. TABLE 1 identifies a list of different rates. In order to provide customers with different data rates, service providers install different line cards, wherein each line card handles a different data rate. In cases where a service provider has many customers, it is likely that the service provider has many line cards to accommodate the different user requirements. However, in cases where a service provider has fewer customers, it is likely that the service provider will need to purchase a new line card to accommodate a new customer with different rate requirements.
Accordingly it would be advantageous to provide a more flexible scheme for accommodation of the varying user requirements. Further limitations and disadvantages of connection and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with embodiments of the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application.